Reference edition:

Expositio totius mundi et gentium, introduction, texte critique, traduction, notes et commentaire par J. Rouge, Paris 1966 (Sources chrétiennes 124).

The anonymous text known as the Expositio totius mundi et gentium, first published by Jacques Godefroy in 1628, seems to be the Latin translation of a Greek text, dating around 350. It shows a narrow parallelism with a later Latin text known as the Descriptio totius mundi (possibly dating to the VIth century). The critical text of the Expositio was edited by Jean Rougé in 1966.

The text is conceived as an itinerary starting from the Far East : § 4-7 consist in an excursus on a people named 'Camarini' (possibly the Khmer, called Qimar in Arabic), substantially similar to the Itinerary from the Garden of Eden, a text handed down in a Byzantine and a Georgian version, possibly stemming from a Syriac original. The account on the Camarini presents some echoes of the ancient Greek utopistic literature, but in a more realistic and ‘secular' way. After this excursus, the itinerary goes westward through the Sasanian Empire, considered in quite bad terms. When the border with the Roman Empire is crossed, the text reads post hos [i.e. the Persians] terra nostra est, nearly showing the relief of the author as he comes back home. However, the Persians are not the only Barbarians considered by the author, who concludes his description of the Danubian provinces (§ 67) with the sentence "what lies beyond the Danube belongs to the Sarmatian race".

As regards the Roman Empire, the Expositio praises it without insisting on its military success, but shows a remarkable interest in the productivity of cities and the imperial provinces, whose abundance is duly highlighted (with the exception of Greece and Africa). This particular concern led some scholars to identify its author in a trader or an imperial official. Yet this is less than probable, since the text presents several anachronisms and at least a remarkable mistake (at §57, the Noricum is mentioned as a city). More likely, the author of the Expositio was a sophist from the Eastern part of the Empire. Possibly, like other geographical or pseudo-administrative works, this text had a pedagogical purpose. [G. Traina]